Beyond Risk: Conversations With Climbers [Paperback]

Nicholas O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1995

In-depth interviews with 17 renowned climbers reveal the ethics, motivations, and future direction of mountaineering.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898864577
• ISBN-13: 978-0898864571
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,099,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nicholas O'Connell, M.F.A, Ph.D., is the author of On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature (U.W. Press, 2003), At the Field's End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers (U.W. Press, 1998), Contemporary Ecofiction (Charles Scribner's, 1996) and Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers (Mountaineers, 1993). He contributes to Newsweek, Gourmet, Saveur, Outside, GO, National Geographic Adventure, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sierra, The Wine Spectator, Commonweal, Image and many other places. Contact him at [e-mail], 206-284-7121, or check out his website, www.thewritersworkshop.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why do we climb?, February 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Risk: Conversations With Climbers (Hardcover)

The best collection of interviews of climbers I have ever read. If you want to understand why climbers climb, read this book. Whenever a non-climber asks why I climb, I've never felt like I gave an adequate answer. Now I can. These climbers each in their own way described why they climb. I found my answers about myself in that book. A must read for any climber and a good read for anyone interested in a climber's mindset.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, solid read on "what makes climbers tick", July 23, 2006

By 

Nina M. Osier (Randolph, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Risk: Conversations With Climbers (Paperback)

The seventeen people interviewed by author O'Connell have one thing in common: climbing. For most it's the love of their life. Yet as I read through each segment, beginning with a short but comprehensive biography (never more than a few pages of text) and continuing with the actual interview, I was struck by how many of these climbers strive to make it plain to O'Connell and all who read his book that climbing by itself isn't what matters most. It's what climbing does for the person - what the person brings to the climb - or both.

Perhaps above all others, this is a "sport" that's about individualism. Although the forming of close friendships and the intimacy of depending on team mates for one's very life get plenty of attention, the place most of these climbers come back to is the same: It's about self-reliance. Self-discipline, and reaching one's own goals instead of goals set by others.

There are some moving tales of survival and sacrifice, tragedy and triumph, contained in these pages. Each segment, though, is not a condensed "life of XXXX XXXXXX who first summited such-and-such a peak." Each is a genuine conversation, talking about the mundane aspects of life and of climbing just as often as about the events that made these people famous.

A good, solid read for anyone who's interested in what makes climbers tick; but a bit of a slog, for readers expecting something in the "true adventure" genre.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool like a summit., January 29, 2009

By 

William A. Stratton (Swansea, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Risk: Conversations With Climbers (Paperback)

This book is a sweet insight into the minds of the guys that rock on rock. Reinhold Messner, Royal Robbins, Doug Scott, Chris Bonington... man they are all here. I originally rented this for a project on Messner, but I couldn't stop reading there.